Salon Meetings at The Contemporary Freudian Society
Hosted by the 27 Rue de fleurus Committee
Co-Chairs, Debra Gill, LCSW and Nancy Cromer- Grayson, LCSW
Meetings Coordinated by Susan Finkelstein, LCSW
The Inseminating Couple: Bion and Intuitive Psychoanalysis, Enid Young , Ph.D, Date: Wed., October 3, 2012, Time: 8:00 PM,
Location: upper west side location
In Transformations, Bion introduces the idea of O or ultimate reality and suggests that in the analytic setting the analyst must be in touch with the ultimate reality or O of the patient before any interpretation can be given. The interpretation, then, represents the translation of O into K,that is the translation of that which cannot be known directly into the realm of thinking. This K must be differentiated from LHK (Love, Hate, Curiosity). LHK is in the area of basic emotion, that is LHK defines an emotional relationship. O to K is in the realm of intuition. The interpretation given (K) is not touched by emotion but rather, informed by intuition.
In 1912, Freud states that “Psychoanalytic technique consists… in as complete a suspension as possible of everything which usually focuses the attention: personal inclinations, prejudices, and theoretical assumptions…The desired goal would appear to be actual direct communication between one unconscious and another: the analyst’s unconscious has to relate to the emerging unconscious of the patient ‘as a telephone receiver is adjusted to the transmitting microphone.” (Laplanche & Pontalis, p. 43-44.)
Referring to the analyst’s interpretation, Bion elaborates Freud’s theory in Cogitations (May, 1970, pp. 316). He says:
“There is no response to a statement unless it is precisely and exactly addressed to the receptor; there appears to be no way in which the emitter and receptor can be adjusted to each other if some degree of correction is required—a miss is absolute, ‘as good as a mile.’”
In this passage, Bion goes on to differentiate the realm of Alpha from the realm of Sigma. Intuitive psychoanalysis is defined by contact with what Bion calls “Sigma” a realm that can only be revealed when memory, desire, and understanding are withheld, creating the conditions for “precise reception”.
In our second discussion of the evolution of Bion’s metapsychology, I will present the idea of the “inseminating couple.” I define the inseminating couple as the analytic instrument through which intuition is channeled, revealing the realm of Sigma, or “truth”. I will suggest that the inseminating couple evolves in the conditions described above by Freud and Bion.
I will present portions of a paper entitled “Beyond Alpha to Sigma: the evolution of intuitive psychoanalysis”. My goal is to discuss Bion’s movement from Alpha to Sigma and the formulation of intuitive psychoanalysis.
“I am supposing that there is a psycho-analytic domain with its own reality—unquestionable, constant, subject to change only in accordance with its own rules even if those rules are not known. These realities are ‘intuitable’ if the proper apparatus is available in the condition proper to its functioning.” (Cogitations, p.313)
Dr. Enid Young is a graduate of the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California. She is a personal and supervising analyst and faculty at PINC. She has developed several programs on the Kleinian development (Freud, Klein and Bion). She is a member of the International Psychoanalytic Association and the International Neuropsychoanalysis Association. She is a founding member of the California Neuropsychoanalysis Research Group, whose mission is to contribute to research and treatment of traumatic brain injury by bringing psychoanalysis into TBI rehabilitation. Dr. Young has a private practice in Berkeley.
Please contact Debra Gill, debra.gill@gmail.com for exact location if you would like to attend. Space is limited.